Happy St. John's Day!

Fuit homo missus a Deo, cui nomen erat Ioannes.

Non erat ille lux, sed ut testimonium perhiberet de lumine.

Christ is the completion of the law for righteousness unto every one that believes. ... For this reason the blessed Baptist is brought forward, as one who had attained the foremost place in legal righteousness, and to a praise so far incomparable. And yet even thus he is ranked as less than one who is least: "for the least, He says, is greater than he in the kingdom of God." But the kingdom of God signifies, as we affirm, the grace that is by faith, by means of which we are accounted worthy of every blessing, and of the possession of the rich gifts which come from above from God. For it frees us from all blame; and makes us to be the sons of God, partakers of the Holy Ghost, and heirs of a heavenly inheritance. (St. Cyril of Alexandria, Sermon XXXVIII [Commentary on Luke])

_______________

A happy St. John's Day to all our readers, wishing you and yours joyful celebrations of Midsummer (or Midwinter, for those in the Southern Hemisphere)!

2 comments:

I would be interested to know how many solemn celebrations of St. John's Day have taken place today across the world. It does seem that the day is generally rather 'low key' but perhaps that is just an English perspective.

In post-Catholic Quebec, Saint Jean Baptiste is the national holiday with many festivities.

Of course, in today's Quebec, the festivities are all secular. There is not a chance you would find even a cleric in modern Quebec, much less a lay person, who would withstand the impiety of their political leaders as did the Holy Precursor to Herod. A case in point - a few weeks ago, a lone bishop in Quebec, Cardinal Ouellet, stated that abortion is an evil even in the case of rape. He was run through the ringers by the entire Quebec National Assembly and the Quebec and Canadian media, and was essentially forced to quell the mob by stating that he was not calling for legal penalties against the women who kill their little unborn, just stating a matter of Catholic faith that abortion is always the wrong "choice".

THis is the state of the land that celebrates St Jean Baptiste Day.

But one cannot be surprised that the honor given to the greatest Prophet born of Woman (Luke 7:28) is no longer celebrated with the same fanfare as of old. FOr doing so would impose an obligation on clergy and laity to denounce and withstand the impiety of their so-called "Catholic" politicians who legislate the murder of the unborn, and legislate its funding, and legislate the definition of marriage to include sodomite partners, and the murder of the dying. And an obligation it would impose: a public humiliation of such wicked politicians, and an embracing of the loss of their heads.

May St John, along with His Lord, increase in this day and age, once again!